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Personnel { Hank Darlington }
Human Resource
Trends of the Future
A wealth of changes from the overlapping of multiple
generations in the workplace to the impact of technology and
various government regulations will continue to impact the
HR peld in the coming decade.
W
hen it comes to
human resource
management,
many kitchen and bath prm
professionals would rather
be designing projects, working with clients to help bring
dreams to life or putting
together new and creative
marketing programs.
But if you want to operate
a really successful business,
you need to be very good
in all three major areas of
running a business: marketing management, pnancial
management and human
resource management. If
you���re weak in one area,
your business will be out of
balance and will never be as
successful as it might be.
As businesses have become more complex, so has
the HR function. It encompasses ever y thing from
addressing staffing needs
to launching e���ective training initiatives to interpreting
federal, state and local codes,
and implementing policies
and practices that safeguard
workers while protecting
your company interests. The
stakes are high: The legal
and economic consequences
of a major human resource
misstep can be enormous.
KEY CHANGES
Every facet of your business
has seen dramatic changes
in the past 30 years, but
none more so than in the
area of HR management.
That���s why it���s critical to look
at how upcoming changes/
trends might a���ect you and
your business.
��� The Economy ��� Over
the past several years, we���ve
all had to tighten our belts.
Since total people costs are
probably in the neighborhood of 60 percent of your
total expenses, this was
likely one of the prst areas
to experience cuts.
If you were smart, you let
your weakest people go. This
should make you stronger.
But the economic downturn
has also a���ected those still
employed. They���ve watched
their 401(k)s and savings
sink to new lows; raises have
become few and far between,
managers. You will have to
develop social media and
blogging policies. You���ll have
to decide whether to monitor
employee time online and if
checking prospective new
employee backgrounds online is the way to go.
��� Overlapping of Work
and Home: Technology has
blurred the lines between
work and home. Employees
work at home in the evenings
on reports and email. They
shop at work and take brief
cannot work from home will
keep you out of trouble with
wage and hour laws.
��� Employee Training &
Development: I���m currently
presenting three different
training seminars online.
The rise of technolog yenabled opportunities for
training and employee development has changed how
training is being done and
will be done. Podcasts, teleseminars, online learning
and webinars now o���er wonderful, cost-e���ective ways to
train your employees.
��� Rising Health Care
Costs: The rising costs
of health care insurance
continue to a���ect what employers can provide in terms
of additional benefits for
their employees, and these
costs will remain a future
concern in the HR peld.
���GenerationalChanges:
With Baby Boomers, Gen X
and Millennials in the workplace, employers often have
���Every facet of your business has seen dramatic
changes in the past 30 years, but none more so than
in the area of human resource management.���
and salaries/hours may have
been cut. There���s cautious
optimism that the economy
is on the uptick, but almost
everyone agrees that it���s going to be a slow and tedious
climb back to ���the good old
days������if, in fact, we ever see
them again.
��� Recruiting/Networking Online: The Internet
has transformed employee
recruiting. Social media interaction and networking
on large boards like Monster to smaller niche job
sites such as LinkedIn and
Ecademy have changed how
employers recruit and how
employees job hunt. Social
media networking is the new
way to pnd employees, get
jobs, pnd answers and build
a widespread, mutually supportive network of contacts,
colleagues and friends. This
new phenomena brings new
challenges for owners and
20 | Kitchen & Bath Design News
March 2013
breaks to play games online.
They do their banking at
work and their work accounting at home. Almost no one
goes anywhere without their
smart phone, laptop or tablet.
No generation has ever
been this connected ��� which
is good and bad! Some employees never stop working,
which interferes with relaxation time and endangers
healthy work/life balance.
Others may become less
productive due to increased
distractions.
Additionally, you need
to pay attention to wage
and hour laws when dealing with hourly employees.
This work-home can cause
problems for employers who
must pay overtime. A policy
that says hourly employees
three generations on the
same team. Many older workers who planned to retire at
age 62-65 are staying in the
work force because of the
economic downturn. Younger
workers are not happy about
this because they���re ready
to move up. Plus, we���re now
finding Gen X and Millennial employees supervising
Boomers ��� and these same
older employees are mentoring the younger ones.
The work habits of these
three groups can also vary
w idely. B o omer s of ten
worked long hours at the
cost of a good work/life
balance. The younger generations want a life outside
of work so managers must
learn how to accommodate
this requirement.
You nger generat ion s
also place high value on
empowerment, and while
they may need mentoring
and coaching, it���s important
to empower them to take
charge of their jobs.
��� Impact of Government
Intervention: Employeremployee relationships have
been strained by the continuing intervention of our
government. It can be a challenge to balance the benepts
employees expect (or those
mandated by government)
with owners��� needs to keep
the doors open.
��� Outsourcing HR Responsibilities: A number
of firms now outsource
their HR functions. There
are many excellent vendors
who will learn your company culture and manage
the bulk of your HR issues.
These vendors will also
help in the important area
of compliance. There continues to be an increase in
employment-related claims
(and lawsuits) in the areas
of Equal Opportunity, wage
and hour claims, wrongful
termination, age discrimination, sexual and general
harassment claims, etc., so
it���s critical to ensure that
your prm remains in compliance with the laws.
��� A Growing Mobile
Work force: T h a n k s to
tablets and the growing
availability of wireless technology, more companies are
reducing overhead through
telecommuting. Statistics
show that allowing employees to work from home at
least part of the time can
increase productivity and
reduce payroll costs. It���s
believed that this trend will
help reduce turnover and improve company loyalty.
Your business is still a
people business. The better you hire, train, motivate,
communicate and compensate, the better your business
will be. Understand what all
these trends may mean to
you���and adapt.
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